With the development of wireless network technology, as well as the popularity of multi-mode terminals, different service shunting solutions are proposed by users from the standpoints such as network capacity, traffic load and throughput and so on, so that the users can perform a network selection better. But all these solutions do not consider the problem of the network selection from the standpoint of energy efficiency. Therefore, how to reduce energy consumption of the network, and how to improve energy efficiency of a system are problems that urgently needed to solve.
In order to solve these problems, the following several technical solutions are provided in the prior art:
One technical solution is: two user-centered network selection solutions are disclosed. Wherein one network selection is: when initiating a service, obtaining network performance requirements corresponding to the service; based on the obtained network performance requirements and network performances of various networks that the multi-mode terminal supports, selecting a network providing the service from the various networks. Another network selection is: when a user initiates a service or a service is transmitted, obtaining the network performance requirements corresponding to the service; extracting network selection tendency information corresponding to the service which is previously stored; based on the obtained network performance requirements, the network performances of various networks that the multi-mode terminal supports, and the extracted network selection tendency information, selecting the network providing the service from the various networks.
Although the two network selection solutions in the prior art enable the multi-mode terminal to combine the service and the characteristics of network to select the appropriate network to access, and improve the performance of end-to-end service systems. However, the two solutions do not consider the energy consumption of the network when performing the network selection. Especially after the network performance changes, the network will be reselected, thereby causing a frequent handover of the user.
Another solution is: a network selection solution based on terminal energy saving. In this technical solution, the user selects a desired operating mode, the networks which can be accessed, and the system parameters and access conditions of these networks are obtained, the energy consumption required for accessing each network is estimated, a network which makes the user most energy-efficient is selected, then service is initiated in the selected network.
It can be seen from the network selection technical solution based on terminal energy saving that, when performing the network selection, the energy saving of the multi-mode terminal is considered, while the energy consumption of the network is not considered. Although the requirements of multi-mode terminal is met, the requirements of energy saving and consumption reduction of the operators cannot be met.
Thus, in the study and practice of the prior art, the inventors of the present invention have found that, in all the existing network selection solutions, the energy consumption of the network is not considered, the energy efficiency of the entire system is reduced, and the growing requirements of energy saving of the operators is not met.